Can opener



L. BETHKE ET AL CAN OPENER Jam, 22, 1924.

Filed Dec. 22 1920 while it might be Patented Jan. 22, 1924.

@NWD sr PATENT: QFHQE.

LEO BETHKE, or MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, AND HERBERT C. roLLINGER, or CHICAGO,

ILLINOIS.

CAN ermine.

Application filed December 22, 1920. Serial No. 432,409.

T 0 all'whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, Lao BETHKE and HERBERT C. FOLLINGER, citizens ofthe United States, and residents of Milwaukee and Chicago, in the counties of Milwaukee and Cook, and States of Wisconsin and Illinois, respectively, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Can Openers, of which the following is afull, clear, and

-' exact specification.

Our invention is concerned with can openers, and is designed to produce a device of the class described that will cut out a disk or other shaped section from the top of the can and lift it out without forcing it downinto the can at all and thus disarranlging the contents of the can.

it is further concerned with a device of the class described that can be driven by a motor and operated rapidly so as to have a large capacity with no other manual labor than that involved in seating the can on the apparatus and then withdrawing it.

To illustrate our invention. we annex hereto 9. sheet of drawings in which the same reference characters are used to designaie identical parts in all the figures, of which- Fig. 1 is a side elevation of our can opener and Fig. 2 is a section on the line 22 of Fig. 1 with the can removed, and

Fig. 3 is an enlarged portion of Fig. 1 but with the angle of the non-cutting edge of the tooth exaggerated.

lhe basis of our invention is a novel cutting blade a, which for round cans will be .curved into a circle and provided with 'a plurality of teeth 6, preferably four, each of which has a sin 1e cutting edge 0 suitably sharpened, the ot er edge cl being dull, and

vertical, we preferably incline ita little, as shown, so that the heel of one cutting edge slightly overlaps the point of the adjacent one. With the construction described, when the blade is forced down on the top of the can, it punctures it at a plurality of equidistant points, and a out then runs from each point in one direction only to the adjacent point, with the result that there is at no time, until the cut is cognpleted, any possibility of any part of the cut out portion being bent down by the friction of the blade, as would be, ossib e if the teeth were equilateral and ha two cutting edges.

With our novel construction, the disk isi cut out substantially flat and adheres to the inner sides of the teeth'so that it is lifted out by them when the blade is retracted, a result not heretofore attained by' any can opener with which we are familiar.

By reason of the edges d being inclined. as shown, so that the heel of each cutting edge 0 overlaps the point of the adjacent cutting edge 0, we virtually insure the registration of the cut made bythe heel of each edge 0, sothat when the blades are forced down so that the heels of the edges pass through the tin, then the cut is completed without any possible breaks through the entire 360. de grees.

While we might simply secure the blade to a handle, as in the Snow and Coe Patent No. 233,813, we preferably mount it in a frame e, which may be provided with the screws f to secure it to a wall, and which has a vertical bearing '9 for the plunger h armature shaft or an extension of it with a worm n meshing with a worm wheel 0 journaled on a bearing p preferably located in a housing for the gearing, and on the wheel 0 we ocate an eccentric pin r, which is conveniently connected with the top of the plunger by the link 8 pivoted thereto. To

knock the cut-out part of the top automatically' out of the blade as it rises, we extend a protection t from the frame down through an opening to in the head j.

The-lugs Z are undercut, and in-the front of the flange k we form aslot '0 through which extends the hook to secured to the rod a: sliding in the bearings y formed on the under side of the tween one of the bearing lugs y and the hook w so that the bottom of the can may be easily can ht under the lugs Z and the hook w and he (1 down thereby when the knife ascends and tends tocarrythe can with it.

While we have shown and described our invention as embodied in the form which at ion flange k. A helically coiled expanding spring a. is interposed bedonotesire to be limited in the interpretationof the claims except as may be 'necessitated by the state of the prior art.

e are aware of the structures of the Snow and Coe patent above referred to, and

those of the patents to Johnson No. 1,116,592 dated November 10, 1914, and Mendenhali No. 1,182,781, dated May 9, 1916, and do not claim the same as our invention, but what we do claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:'

1. In a can opener,- a holder and a blade member secured therein having a plurality of teeth, each of said teeth having only one cutting edge, and all of them combined completely circumscribing 360 by said cutting edges, the non-cutting ed es of the teeth being inclined to the line 0 movement so that the heel ofone cutting ed e slightly overlaps the point of the afiacent one, and means associated with said holder and blade member so as automatically to knock out the glolgion of the can cut out and lifted by the a e. l

2. In a can opener, the combination with a frame, of a can support associated therewith, a a mounted to reciprocate in memes the frame above the support, a blade mem- I ber carried by the plun r having a. plurality of teeth which com med circumscribe 360 degreesby their cutting edges, means acting automatically as the plunger rises to knock out the portion of the can out out and lifted by the shaft.

3. In a can opener, the combination with a frame, of a can support associated therewith, a plunger mounted to reciprocate in the frame above the Support, a blade member carried b the lunger havin a plurality of teeth, a rive s aft su ported by the frame, a worm carried by sai drive shaft, a worm gear wheel journaled on the frame, an eccentric pin carried by the worm gear wheel. a connection from the eccentric pin to the plunger, and means to rotate the vertical shaft.

In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands and aflixed our seals this th day of November, A. D. 1920.

HERBERT o. FOLLINGER. [n.a] LEO BETHKE. [n 5. 

